UNITED NATIONS  The U.N. humanitarian chief appealed to donor countries Monday for more than $60 million to help Haiti recover from storms that killed hundreds of people and heavily damaged the Caribbean nation's agricultural base.

John Holmes said donors have contributed or pledged about 40 percent of the $107 million the U.N. is seeking to help Haiti over the next six months, but that is nowhere near enough to deal with the aftermath of the storms.

Haiti was ravaged by four storms -- Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- in less than four weeks during August and September. Nearly 800 people were killed and much of the country's agriculture was destroyed, leaving many people hungry. World Bank officials estimate that total damage surpassed $1 billion.

"I think (this) was one of the worst, if not the worst disaster they've had probably in the last hundred years," said Holmes.

Last week, Holmes visited Haiti -- the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere even before the storms. He held talks with the country's leaders and visited the hardest-hit city of Gonaives, which he called "a pretty dramatic and grim site" with a large new storm-spawned lake on the outskirts.

Some people have returned to the spot where their houses were, many are still struggling to deal with huge amounts of mud left behind by the floodwaters, and "over 30,000 people who are in shelters ... and in considerable need of help," he said.

Asked whether the current financial crisis was having an impact on donations, he said he did not believe the development and humanitarian budgets of the main donors have been affected -- "at this stage anyway."

"The question is whether it will do so in the future," Holmes said. "Our very strong plea is that it shouldn't because we believe these budgets need to be insulated from the effects of the financial crisis."

"Otherwise, gaps between rich and poor in terms of individuals and countries will simply grow, and that's not going to be good for anybody," he said.

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